TIRANA, Jan 14 /ATA/ – Gioachino Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle will be staged as an absolute premiere at Albania’s National Theatre of Opera, Ballet and Folk Ensemble (TKOBAP).
Rossini wrote it originally for a private chapel in 1863. After the success of William Tell, he largely abandoned opera composition, devoting himself instead to chamber and sacred music. Alongside the renowned Stabat Mater, Petite messe solennelle is considered one of the finest works of 19th-century music and was famously described by Rossini himself as “the last of my sins of old age.”
The spiritual masterpiece will be performed in the final week of January, featuring soprano Svetlana Aksenova, mezzo-soprano Enkeleida Shkoza, tenor Klodjan Kaçani and bass Rubén Amoretti.
The production brings together the Choir of the Kosovo Philharmonic and the TKOBAP Choir, conducted by choir masters Hajrullah Syla and Dritan Lumshi, alongside the TKOBAP Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Facundo Agudin.
Petite messe solennelle is sung in French, as it was composed in France at the request of a countess for a private mass. Rossini deliberately played with words in the title, calling the work both “small” and “solemn” in reference to its reduced ensemble – soloists, choir, harmonium and piano – and its distinctly operatic spirit, rooted in the composer’s background in opera buffa.
/j.p/u.sh/
